adv
(law) From an intestate (someone who dies with no legal will).
n
(law) A common law legal doctrine stating that the death of a defendant who is appealing a criminal conviction vacates the conviction.
n
(law) A rule under which a federal court in the United States will decline to exercise jurisdiction over a lawsuit because the suit could or should instead be heard by a state court.
n
A cause of action in tort arising from one party making a malicious and deliberate misuse or perversion of regularly issued court process (civil or criminal) not justified by the underlying legal action.
n
(law) An act, or series of acts, considered as separate from the intentions or state of mind of the perpetrator in the context of criminal law.
n
(law) The augmentation by a judge of damages awarded by a jury.
n
(law) Something contrary to the interests of a party to a lawsuit.
n
(law) The presumption that the failure of a party to produce a witness available to them indicates that the testimony of that witness would go against the party.
n
(law) A common law tort that can be brought against the third party alleged to be responsible for the failure of marriage; abolished in many jurisdictions.
n
(law) a legal doctrine that allows a plaintiff to shift the burden of proving causation of her injury to multiple defendants, even though only one of them could have been responsible
n
(law, obsolete) Any step wrongly innovated or attempted by an inferior judge in a suit.
n
(law) In the legal area of torts, a hazardous object or condition that is likely to attract children who are unable to appreciate the risk posed by the object or condition, and to whom the landowner can therefore be held liable for injuries.
n
(law) A legal doctrine by which liability is extended to a defendant who did not actually commit the tortious or criminal act.
n
(law) A malicious motive by a party in a lawsuit. This has an effect on the ability to maintain causes of action and obtain legal remedies.
n
(law) A wrongful act by one person against another for which the other person may recover damages in a lawsuit; this includes tort, breach of contract, breach of trust, and breach of fiduciary duty.
n
An activity to which all participants consent which is deemed to be illegal.
n
(law, countable) A particular act of open disrespect for or willful disobedience of the authority of a court of law.
n
(law) The rule of law under which an act or omission of plaintiff is a contributing cause of injury and a possible bar to a complete recovery.
n
(law, chiefly South Africa) In Roman-Dutch law, the unlawful and intentional impairment of someone's dignity (covering road rage, stalking, and various kinds of abuse).
adj
Archaic spelling of criminal. [Against the law; forbidden by law.]
n
(law) a common-law rule according to which a defendant is not liable for the plaintiff's conditions or injuries that predate the tort, except to the degree that the tort worsened or hastened that injury or condition
n
(law) Negligence or fault, as distinguishable from dolus (deceit, fraud), which implies intent, culpa being imputable to defect of intellect, dolus to defect of heart.
n
(law) Loss without injury: the situation, in tort law, when one person causes damage or loss to another for which the latter has no remedy. (For example, opening a burger stand near someone else's may cause them to lose customers, but they will have no legal recourse.)
n
(law) One of two conditions which must be asserted in an action to obtain a protective order or injunction to be granted and relief sought (the other condition being fumus boni iuris).
n
(law) The failure of a defendant to appear and answer a summons and complaint.
n
(law) The branch of law dealing in delicts.
adj
(law) Derived from a delict (analogous to a tort).
n
(law) A defense by which the defendant argues that, although they broke the law, they should not be held fully criminally liable, as their mental functions were impaired.
n
(law) In criminal law, whereby an individual seeks a particular consequence to occur and commits a crime in order to achieve it.
n
(law) The common-law rule according to which the unexpected frailty of an injured person is not a valid defense to the seriousness of any injury caused to them.
n
(appellate law, uncountable) One or more mistakes in a trial that could be grounds for review of the judgement.
adj
(law, postpositive) Of a legal obligation: arising from a delict or tort, or some other wrongful act.
n
(law) An exception based on the fact that the underlying cause of action was based on duress or intimidation by the plaintiff of the defendant.
n
(law, or general usage, chiefly in the plural) Any fact that mitigates or lessens a crime.
n
(law) the performing of an act, especially out of one's duty.
adv
Alternative form of in flagrante delicto [In the act of committing a misdeed.]
n
(law) A law that requires able persons, without putting themselves at risk, to provide reasonable aid to persons who are injured, ill, or otherwise imperiled.
n
(US) A punishment that follows from an act that furthers justice, especially in reference to civil rights work.
adj
(law) Judged to have committed a crime.
n
(law) legal principle under which the state should only limit an individual's actions to the extent that they would cause harm to another
n
(law) Damages awarded to the plaintiff, in a personal injury case, for the loss of joy of living.
n
(law, dated) A grand jury's ruling on an indictment when the evidence is determined to be insufficient to send the case to trial.
n
(law) injury; invasion of another's rights
n
(law) A foreseeable event that occurs after a tortfeasor's initial act of negligence and causes injury to a victim. It does not absolve the tortfeasor of liability for injury.
n
(law) An oversight in pleading, or the acknowledgment of a mistake or oversight.
n
(law) An unreasonable delay in bringing a claim alleging a wrong, which means the person who waited shall not be permitted to seek an equitable remedy because the delay prejudiced the moving party.
n
(law) An amount owed to a plaintiff in a lawsuit by the defendant that is determined by operation of law, such as the unpaid amount in a breach of contract.
n
(law) A tort and (in some jurisdictions) an offence committed when a third party who does not have a bona fide interest in a lawsuit provides help or acquires an interest to a litigant's lawsuit.
n
A common law intentional tort which arises from a party (1) intentionally and maliciously instituting or pursuing (or causing to be instituted or pursued) a legal action (civil or criminal) that is (2) brought without probable cause and (3) dismissed in favor of the other party.
n
(law) A guilty mind, the conscious knowing of a perpetrator while committing an act that the act is illicit.
n
(law) An error at a trial which led to an unjust outcome, such as the conviction of a person for a crime they did not commit.
n
Alternative form of misjudgment [An act of misjudging; a mistake in judgment.]
n
(law, singular only) The tort whereby a duty of reasonable care was breached, causing damage: any conduct short of intentional or reckless action that falls below the legal standard for preventing unreasonable injury.
n
(US law) An act considered negligent because it violates a statute or regulation.
n
(law) A tort cause of action that arises where a party is injured because the other party entrusted a dangerous instrumentality (such as a vehicle or a weapon) to a person whom the other party knew or reasonably should have known should not be trusted with that instrumentality.
n
A declaration of no objection; (specifically) a declaration used by the Catholic Church to indicate a book, initiative, or appointment to an office has been found to not breach religious or moral norms.
n
(law) The general plea or denial in an action of assumpsit.
n
(law) A doctrine of law that, in certain circumstances, an intervening event can break the chain of causation between a person's action and its result, potentially depriving that person of legal liability for the result; such an intervening event.
adj
(law) Relating to wrongful injury.
n
(law) A void act; a defective proceeding or one expressly declared by statute to be a nullity.
n
(US law, by extension) An explanation offered as a defense to criminal or wrongful behavior, claiming that one is justified in not obeying a governmental order or a domestic law because the order or law is itself unlawful.
n
(nonce word) A pledge or promise that does not carry the full level of commitment of an oath.
n
(law) Interference with the administration of law and justice, as by ignorance of a justification, fraud of evidential validity, or not disclosing discovery of facts, or by doing damage to a witness, officer, juror.
adj
(law, obsolete) Of or relating to trial by ordeal.
n
(law) an inference that the defendant has promised to pay the plaintiff for the plaintiff's work or labor as much as he should deserve
n
(law) The legal responsibility arising when a party materially contributes to, facilitates, induces or is otherwise responsible for directly infringing acts carried out by another party.
n
Claims made by a plaintiff for losses that may occur in the future, but are highly improbable. They can not be used as a basis for recovery in tort or contract cases.
n
(law) In tort law, the degree of caution that a reasonable person should exercise in a given situation so as to avoid causing injury.
n
(law) A standard of legal liability by which a person can be found liable regardless of intent, fault or negligence.
n
(law) An unforeseeable event that occurs after a tortfeasor's initial act of negligence and causes injury to a victim. It generally absolves the tortfeasor of liability for injury.
n
(law) A wrongful act, whether intentional or negligent, which causes an injury and can be remedied in civil court, usually through the awarding of damages.
n
(law) The area of law pertaining actions that unfairly cause personal loss or harm, and result in liability for the person who commits the actions.
n
(chiefly law) The condition, or an act, of doing wrong; the act of committing a tort.
n
(law) A person who commits a tort.
adj
(law) Of, pertaining to, or characteristic of torts.
n
(law, torts) Intentional damage to a person's contractual or other business relationships.
n
(law) The situation where, when the intention to harm one party inadvertently causes a second party to be harmed instead, the perpetrator is still held responsible.
n
(law) A catch-all tort from English common law, involving trespass against anything else other than an individual which may be actionable.
adj
(law) Of or pertaining to trespass.
v
(obsolete) To trust, have faith in.
n
(law) A person who is not a regularly appointed trustee but interferes with the trust as if they were.
n
(law) An amount owed to a plaintiff in a lawsuit by the defendant that can not be determined by operation of law, such as the value of pain and suffering in a tort case.
n
(law) A statute that provides relief from the common law rule that the death of an individual cannot be the basis of a cause of action in a civil suit.
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